Mercenary Tales
by shadowcat15
Summary: This is going to be a collection of ten drabble-like things based on ten prompts. FE9, pairings may contain slash.
1. Tidings

**Title: Mercenary Tales**

**Author: shadowcat15**

**Pairings/ Characters: Ike/Soren friendship (more if you squint)**

**Warnings: None for this chapter.**

**Notes: This is going to be a collection of ten drabble-like things based on ten prompts. Each part exists separate from the others unless mentioned otherwise. **

**01. Tidings **

Ike understood why Soren left to study in Melior, he really did. Being a simple band of muscle-for-hire the Greil Mercenaries rarely carried books that didn't relate to their job or have some purpose in battle. Quite often, Soren would buy a book in one town, read it along the journey to the next and then sell it when they arrived, usually for a higher price than he'd originally purchased it for. Ike noticed that Soren always had a relatively stable amount of money, so he suspected the money Soren received in return for the sold book went towards his next one.

See? Ike acknowledged, if not understood, the strange love affair his best friend had with bound pieces of paper, and he was content in his knowledge that once Soren had exhausted the libraries of Melior he would return. But that in no way meant that he didn't miss the closeness the two had.

So when Soren returned ahead of schedule Ike was slightly miffed that Soren's first words were of Death and Destruction rather than "Hello, Ike, I've missed you. Let me tell you every detail of my trip." Okay, fine. Death and Destruction were fairly important things, but still -- _friendship_ was important too, right?

(Soren redeemed himself in Ike's mind by making it only as far as the tent they shared before falling asleep from sheer exhaustion during a hug and muttering sounds of protest whenever Ike tried to loosen his arms, leaving Ike no choice but to stay next to his friend all night.

Soren was rather embarrassed in the morning, though.)


	2. Cake

**Title: Mercenary Tales**

**Author: shadowcat15**

**Pairings/Characters: Shinon, Mist, Gatrie**

**Warnings: None.**

**Notes: This is going to be a collection of ten drabble-like things based on ten prompts. Each part exists separate from the others unless mentioned otherwise. **

**02. Cake **

There was a cake with his face staring at him.

Shinon-the-Cake glared up at Shinon-the-Man, who was glaring in response.

"Mist?" He kept his voice carefully sedate.

"…yes?"

"This is very well done." Must. Not. Kill. Children.

"…happy birthday?"

Shinon's eye twitched. "Who told you that?"

"Um…"

There was a clash from the other side of the kitchen, then the sound of feet pounding the ground accompanied by the exceedingly familiar clang of armor.

"Ah." Gatrie only acted like a child, and that made him fair game.

"Please don't kill him, Shinon, we need him for our next assignment."

Shinon sighed. "Fine."

Ike may have thought Shinon was sparing Gatrie because he requested it and he was Commander. But no. The look Oscar sent him over Ike's shoulder was the reason Gatrie would live to make another mistake.

Oscar was a very good cook, very clever, and Shinon took threats of food poisoning very seriously.


	3. Voyage

**Title: Mercenary Tales**

**Author: shadowcat15**

**Pairings/Characters: Sothe, Sanaki, Volke**

**Warnings: None.**

**Notes: This one is too long to be titled a drabble, but oh well. **

**03. Voyage **

The Greil Mercenaries were no strangers to spending extended periods of time together. It was a downfall of having a job such as theirs. A new member quickly learned which of the rest they got along with -- and which they didn't. That knowledge was a necessary skill for survival in their line of work, where tension and frustration got to even the best of them. (Oscar still blushed in embarrassment when _anyone, _but especially Mist, mentioned the time he was so deep in thought about the upcoming battle he accidentally wandered into the girls bath.)

So when their course was revealed to involve a sea voyage several months in duration, none among them thought it wasn't within their capabilities to handle each other for a couple months, and if they did, no one voiced their concerns.

They might have made it to Begnion without incident too, if it weren't for some of the extra passengers they accumulated. If Ike was asked, everything had gone fine, but that was because Ike was the commander, and as far as anyone had told him, things _had_ gone fine.

Ike was true to his word, and put Sothe to work around the ship with menial tasks designed to keep him out of trouble. This worked in _theory_. Sothe was perfectly well-behaved when Ike, Soren, or Titania were around, but the moment they left the area the others began noticing small belongings going missing. At night, most people had added the task of checking their belongings to their nightly rituals, and if anything was found missing (which it always was) Sothe found a bunch of angry mercenaries standing at the foot of his bedroll. Sothe never put up a fuss about returning the things he'd taken, explaining that he was just doing it for the practice.

While reactions to his practice technique were varied, the majority of the ships passengers didn't really care, as long as he would return what they stole. Tormod decided to turn it into a game, trying to stay vigilant throughout the day as to not get robbed. Sothe wasn't looking to make friends as Tormod was, but he couldn't help being amused by Tormod's face when he showed up with the group of people who wanted their possessions back every night.

Due to her noble upbringing, Astrid was quiet and spent most of her time helping around the ship. When she became the newest member of the group, Sothe didn't stealing anything from her for risk of angering her. Any chores she did were chores Ike couldn't force _him_ to do.

Then Sanaki arrived.

Ike was still unaware of Sothe's favored past-time, so when Sanaki threatened to go to him after Sothe stole a few gold coins from her satchel, Sothe was convinced that the next time they made port he was going to be booted out of the ship with more bruises than there were passengers.

When none of this happened, and a man wearing a mask whom he'd never seen before showed up and took him aside he was very, very confused. The man lectured him quietly about the difference between jobs a thief did for fun, and jobs a thief did because he was being paid large sums of gold.

Stealing from the Apostle of Begnion was apparently one of the latter.


	4. Battle

**Title: Mercenary Tales**

**Author: shadowcat15**

**Pairings/Characters: Soren**

**Warnings: Battle descriptions.**

**Notes: This is going to be a collection of ten drabble-like things based on ten prompts. Each part exists separate from the others unless mentioned otherwise. **

**04. Battle**

The thrill of battle was immortalized in song.

Odes were sung about the beauty of swords that blazed quicker than the eye; the gleam caught on weapons from the sun; the sound of battle cries and feet pounding on the ground. A talented bard could string words together to create a vivid image of battles gone by, helped along by copious amounts of alcohol.

But in the armory tent of the Crimean Liberation Army, Soren felt none of these thrills. He washed blood off of weapons that had taken lives -- taken _people _from their families as Greil had been taken from Ike. He took stock of the armory and noted down the amount of them that needed replacement. The task was done over and over again after every battle. The battles were fought because if they didn't do it someone else would. Someone raised by a man or woman less tolerant than Greil. At least this way they had control over who was killed.

Control such as that was control not one of the Greil Mercenaries embraced willingly.


End file.
